Well, we’re finally set for our first taste of the cold together.

Thanks to kind support from the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, we have booked 10 days of polar training in the Nunavut province of Canada.

Isolated, buffeted by powerful winds, and fighting for every gain across a landscape devoid of easily identifiable landmarks, our team finds a way forward.

I’m not talking about the actually Polar trek, however. I’m talking about Polar Vision’s fundraising.

Trying to raise funds can seem overwhelming. We’re trying to raise $500k to cover the costs of our expedition as well as generate some funds for our sponsors, Guide Dogs for the Blind and Sightsavers International. Much like I expect the South Pole to appear from the Antarctic shore, that amount seems phenomenally large and impossibly far away. Again, much like our trek to the Pole, there are no natural landmarks between here and there.

We either make it, or we don’t.

Surrounded by a bleak and featureless landscape, it’s not possible to navigate using our immediate senses. On the Pole we’ll have to rely on GPS, map and compass, and other tools to get where we’re going. This isn’t the North Pole where we could theoretically rely on the lights of Santa’s Workshop! Fortunately, I think our team has some pretty powerful tools to guide us as we raise funds over the next year.

First, for me, what Alan is doing is just genuinely inspiring. Alan, like all of us, is someone whose life conditions aren’t what he’d expected them to be. Alan, however, is someone who knows that while life take its unexpected twists and turns, we can always choose how we live our lives.

Next, our team is going to add value in lots of ways. Alan is going to serve as an inspiration for the thousands of people afflicted with sight related disabilities each year. For our sponsors, this is a great way to make a tax deductable donation to an expedition which has begun to generate media attention which is only going to grow over the next year.

We have a long way to go. But I’m confident we’re going to meet our fundraising goals. Traversing 600 miles of icy wilderness is the easy part.

- Andrew J

Garrick and I recently had a few days of training by cycling down the coast of California on a tandem from Santa Cruz down towards Big Sur and back again.

Great weather, not too much traffic and a good chance to get the legs moving after some Christmas turkey.

Whilst these conditions are not representative of Antarctica, any training at this stage is great. I have to say that I was chomping on the pain killers on the second day, as my old rowing injury (long story but lets say sitting on the bike seat did not help!) was making its presence known, so it turned into a bit of an endurance event.

Still, it was a great opportunity and we both enjoyed it. We have a big year ahead, and some polar training coming up soon, so lets keep fingers crossed for everything working out!

- Alan

I always loved adventure stories, especially those from real life.

Whenever I read them, I imagined myself as the protagonist of the adventure, which always involved the longest, deepest, coldest, highest of something! Therefore Mt Everest provided me with some of my favourite stories and it was these stories in my mind that helped me to get to Everest Base Camp on December 13^th.

Everest Base Camp is a popular 15 day trek which sees thousands of visitors to the Sagarmatha National Park each year but notwithstanding - it’s no ‘walk in the park’. Everest Base Camp is where those planning to summit Everest will spend time acclimatizing. The altitude is 5,360m, oxygen is down to a gasping 51% and when I was there temperatures were down to -20c.

It took my group 8 days of walking and acclimatization to reach base camp, and while some of the early days are steep and long they are relatively easy. It’s the later days when the breathlessness and headaches from the lack of oxygen really start to slow you down. A lot.

The toughest day was the one after reaching base camp when we decided that we should rise before dawn to summit the neighbouring mountain Kala Pathur (5,545m). The cold was absolutely biting and I was panting like I had just sprinted a marathon. The view from the summit was incredible though, great views of Everest and you could see the route that those planning to summit Everest would take. Truly inspiring.

Throughout the trek, my thoughts were often with Polar Vision and how this experience was a good ‘taster’ for what was to come. Yes, I was cold, Yes, I was uncomfortable and certainly I was tired. However I remained inspired to press on by the stories of Everest adventure that I had read, from Mallory to Hillary to Messner.

It’s these same stories which will be my motivation in Antarctica. It’s certainly no coincidence that Polar Vision is timed to occur upon the 100^thanniversary of Amundsen first reaching the pole in 1911. His race with Captain Robert Scott is well-known and an exciting part of Antarctic history.

However, my personal favourite Antarctic adventure is that of the Irishman, Sir Ernest Shackleton. Despite failing to reach the pole on two occasions his 1914-17 expedition remains a source of inspiration and fascination to me. Although he failed in his attempt to cross the continent sea-to-sea via the pole, because his ship became trapped and crushed in pack ice, he successfully managed to rescue himself and all his crew from the perilous conditions with no loss of life. His story is one of great heroism, bravery and leadership in the face of extreme adversity.

Given my fascination with Shackleton’s story, I was so delighted to recently meet a relative of Sir Ernest who, coincidentally, lives in the same part of the Upper Valley in New England near to me. Charlie Shackleton runs a furniture and pottery store with his wife in the area and they were gracious enough to spend a couple of hours to meet with me, to share their ‘Shackleton’ stories and show genuine interest and support for our Polar Vision ambitions.

I have always been struck by the way the Shackleton story still resonates with people, due to the courage, leadership and strength of character shown by Sir Ernest. While I do not expect the Polar Vision story to be as ‘exciting’ (in fact I would be delighted if nothing too unexpected were to occur), I hope that for each of the Polar Vision team we are writing our own little adventure stories which will hopefully be an inspiration for not only our friends and families but also for ourselves throughout the rest of our own lives.

For Alan especially, his story will no doubt be a real encouragement for the blind community to explore their assumed limits of adventure.

I loved reading adventure stories; I can’t wait to write one.

-Richard

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